result. Both among birds and plants new species have been
distinguished and named: and there has been not a little change
in nomenclature. This Dictionary, it must be remembered, is
chiefly concerned with vernacular names, but for proper
identification, wherever possible, the scientific name is
added. In some cases, where there has been a recent change in
the latter, both the new and the older names are recorded.

VII. AUTHORITIES.

The less-known birds, fishes, plants, and trees are in many
cases not illustrated by quotations, but have moved to their
places in the Dictionary from lists of repute. Many books have
been written on the Natural History of Australia and New
Zealand, and these have been placed under contribution. Under
the head of Botany no book has been of greater service than
Maiden's <i>Useful Native Plants</i>. Unfortunately many
scientific men scorn vernacular names, but Mr. Maiden has taken
the utmost pains with them, and has thereby largely increased
the utility of his volume. For Tasmania there is Mr. Spicer's
<i>Handbook of Tasmanian Plants</i>; for New Zealand, Kirk's
<i>Forest Flora</i> and Hooker's <i>Botany</i>.

For Australian animals Lydekker's <i>Marsupials and
Monotremes</i> is excellent; especially his section on the
Phalanger or Australian <i>Opossum</i>, an animal which has
been curiously neglected by all Dictionaries of repute. On New
Zealand mammals it is not necessary to quote any book; for when
the English came, it is said, New Zealand contained no mammal
larger than a rat. Captain Cook turned two pigs loose; but it
is stated on authority, that these pigs left no descendants.
One was ridden to death by Maori boys, and the other was killed
for sacrilege: he rooted in a tapu burial-place. Nevertheless,
the settlers still call any wild-pig, especially if lean and
bony, a "Captain Cook."

For the scientific nomenclature of Australian Botany the
<i>Census of Australian Plants</i> by the Baron von Mueller
(1889) is indispensable. It has been strictly followed. For
fishes reliance has been placed upon Tenison Woods' <i>Fishes
and Fisheries of New South Wales</i> (1882), on W. Macleay's
<i>Descriptive Catalogue of Australian Fishes</i> (Proceedings
of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales, vols. v. and vi.),
and on Dr. Guenther's <i>Study of Fishes</i>. For the
scientific nomenclature of Animal Life, the standard of
reference has been the <i>Tabular List of all th